The Thai-Based Billionaire Bankrolling Reform UK

The man bankrolling Reform UK’s rise in British politics is a reclusive Thai-based crypto billionaire with a love of aviation. 

Christopher Harborne, 63, gave £9m to Nigel Farage’s party in August last year – the largest single political donation ever made in the UK by a living person – and has provided two-thirds of all funds Reform has received. 

Born in Yorkshire, Harborne went to Westminster School and Cambridge before working for the management consultancy McKinsey and corporations such as PepsiCo. 

But for the last two decades he has lived and worked in Thailand, where he goes by the name Chakrit Sakunkrit.

A flying enthusiast, Harborne founded companies that trade in private planes and jet fuel, surviving a small plane crash in 2008, two years before Farage’s own near-death aviation experience.

But it was cryptocurrency that saw his net worth soar, first as a buyer of tokens and then as an investor in crypto mining. He now owns 12% of ‘stablecoin’ Tether. 

Harborne gave more than £266,000 to the Conservative party between 2001 and 2018 but ramped up his donations in 2019 after switching his allegiance to Nigel Farage, with a £6m donation to the Brexit party in 2019.

He also allegedly gave the Reform leader an undisclosed personal gift of £5m in June 2024 shortly before Farage U-turned about standing as an MP in the general election, according to the Guardian. 

Farage claimed in The Telegraph that Harborne was an “ardent supporter who is deeply concerned for my safety” and said the money was to cover personal security costs the Home Office would not fund. 

Meanwhile lawyers for Harborne said the Guardian’s enquiries about the gift were “replete with speculation and assumptions that do not appear to be grounded in any evidence”.

While Farage insists that Harborne wants “absolutely nothing in return at all” from his investment, the Reform leader has become a cheerleader for crypto, this month promoting a ‘Bitcoin treasury’ called Stack BTC – chaired by former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. 

“Stablecoins, crypto, this world is enormous, and I’ve been urging for years that London should embrace it. We should become a global trading centre for this stuff,” Farage told LBC.

Tom Midlane is a freelance journalist.